Hadrian’s Wall Accommodation Guide: B&Bs, Bunkhouses and Campsites

When you’re planning to walk The Wall (sounds like a punishment, doesn’t it?), one of the key parts is choosing the right Hadrian’s Wall accommodation. Is booking B&Bs cheating, should I camp? Where can I find hotels near Hadrian’s Wall Path? Honestly, I was more anxious about finding and booking Hadrian’s Wall Walk accommodation than I was about walking the damn thing.

We split the 84-mile path into six walking days (which is how most people tackle it) so we needed Hadrian’s Wall Path accommodation for seven nights. Because I booked everything literally a month and a half (!) before our walk, it was so hard to find ideal places to stay near Hadrian’s Wall. There’s accommodation, sure, but it’s patchy. In the end, my walking pal and I mainly stayed in B&Bs and hotels. We didn’t fancy camping and bunkhouses weren’t an option because everything was booked up.

So, if you’re also struggling to find accommodation near Hadrian’s Wall, I wanted to write a Hadrian’s Wall accommodation guide to help you out. I’ve written about the accommodation we stayed in and offered alternatives for every stage. Food and accommodation go together on this trip, so I’ll talk a bit about that. I’ve only walked Hadrian’s Wall Path once so I can only speak to my experience, but I do recommend buying the Trailblazer Hadrian’s Wall Path Guide Book for more accommodation tips from a real expert. I read this book cover to cover before I left and it helped me out so much.

Hadrian’s Wall Accommodation Guide

Day 0: Newcastle

Accommodation: Motel One

Distance from the trail: 3.7miles/6km

Price per night: £69 (not including breakfast)

We arrived in Newcastle on a Sunday in September 2021 to start Hadrian’s Wall Path at Wallsend the next day. For some reason, all the hotels were either fully booked or super expensive. Luckily, I found Motel One Newcastle on Booking.com for an affordable price. In fact, I booked most of our accommodation through Booking.com (except Days 3 & 4) to take advantage of their cancellation policies in case we got Covid and couldn’t go.

It was nice! Exactly what you’d expect in a modern chain hotel. And it doesn’t really matter if you stay somewhere that offers breakfast because Newcastle is a big city and you can find food anywhere.

And you don’t really need to find accommodation near Hadrian’s Wall Path’s starting point at Segedunum Museum either. Our hotel was near the Monument metro stop and we took the yellow line to Wallsend in the morning which takes 10 minutes.

Other Hadrian’s Wall Accommodation Options

Hadrian’s Wall Hotels/B&Bs: Copthorne Hotel and County Hotel
Hadrian’s Wall Hostels/Bunkhouses: Albatross Hostel and Newcastle YHA
Hadrian’s Wall Campsites: Not too many options to camp in a city!

Day 1: Newburn/Heddon-on-the-Wall

Accommodation: The Keelman Lodge & Big Lamp Brewery

Distance from the trail: 0.2miles/0.32km

Price per night: £72 (not including full breakfast)

Usually, Hadrian’s Wall path walkers carry on to stay in (or near) Heddon-on-the-Wall after their first day of walking. I could find zero places to stay in this tiny village! So we had to cut our first day short and stay in Newburn at The Keelman lodge.

In hindsight, I’m pleased we did because it was a great Hadrian’s Wall B&B. We arrived before three in the afternoon so our first day was a nice, easy introduction to the long-distance hike. The setting next to the River Tyne was beautiful and peaceful and it was our closest Hadrian’s Wall accommodation to the path itself. We ate big portions of fish and chips for dinner, drank great beer from the brewery next door, and had a continental breakfast in the morning.

The decor might’ve been a little dated but that meant it was cheap and which I prefered. If I were to book again, I’d have paid for the full breakfast.

Other Hadrian’s Wall Accommodation Options

Hadrian’s Wall Hotels/B&Bs: Heddon Lodge and Hadrian’s Barn (you can eat dinner at Three Tuns pub)
Hadrian’s Wall Hostels/Bunkhouses: Haughton North Farm
Hadrian’s Wall Campsites: Pitch on the Wall and Robin Hood Inn

Day 2: Chollerford

Accommodation: Errington House

Distance from the trail: 3.3miles/5.3km

Price per night: £110 (includes breakfast)

TOP TIP: Don’t forget to check short-term rental sites like Airbnb if you start to get really stuck.

I couldn’t find Chollerford accommodation for this leg of the trip because there are literally two hotels in the village. But we needed to stay in or around Chollerford after our second day of walking (it’s the only place that makes sense!) and you likely do as well. By some miracle, I found Errington House about an hour’s walk away from Chollerford. It’s a real bed and breakfast run by a lovely couple and it’s their actual home.

It’s decorated beautifully and the breakfast in the morning was quite the spread. Honestly, there was every type of breakfast food imaginable on that table.

The only downsides were the distance away from Hadrian’s Wall Path and the fact that it isn’t a pub/inn, so no dinner the night before. Luckily, our host offered to pick us up from Chollerford and drop us back off there in the morning so we didn’t have to walk extra miles. If you want to stay at Errington House, maybe contact them before booking to check this is an option for you.

You could eat a bigger meal for lunch at Errington Coffee Shop or Robin Hood Inn (definitely one of the best pubs on Hadrian’s Wall Path). Then for dinner, you could eat pasta in a mug and instant noodles as we did! Need’s must, eh?

Other Hadrian’s Wall Accommodation Options

Hadrian’s Wall Hotels/B&Bs: George Hotel and Chesters Bridge Bed and Breakfast
Hadrian’s Wall Hostels/Bunkhouses: Greenarts Campsite and Bunkhouse
Hadrian’s Wall Campsites: Riverside Campsite

Day 3: Once Brewed

Accommodation: Twice Brewed Inn & Brew House

Distance from the trail: 0.7miles/1.1km

Price per night: £120 (includes breakfast)

I’ve never told my Hadrian’s Wall pal this, but we partly walked the path on the dates we did because I really wanted to stay at the Twice Brewed Inn and it’s a busy place. I’m pleased we did because this place was a highlight of our trip.

This Hadrian’s Wall B&B (and brewery! Another brewery!) was just off the Hadrian’s Wall Path so the location was perfect. Since it’s an inn, we enjoyed burgers and a flight of their own Roman-themed beer each for dinner and a huge cooked breakfast in the morning. They even had veggie fry-ups so I was very, very happy. I booked directly with this Hadrian’s Wall accommodation because Booking.com’s price was more expensive and didn’t include the breakfast.

Read next: Hadrian’s Wall Walk: Essential Tips to Know Before You Set Off

Their rooms were small but cosy (a bit warm but we were experiencing a heatwave) and their outside space is gorgeous. Lots of wooden tables and barrels with fairy lights hanging from the walls. We were also in the very bottom tip of the Northumberland Dark Sky Park and we lucked out and stayed there on a clear night.

Staying at Twice Brewed Inn also seems like it’s as much part of the Hadrian’s Wall Path experience as the walk itself. It’s not really near a village and all the walkers we met seem to be stopping there too. They also make packed lunches for walkers if that’s something you’re interested in. 10/10 you need to stay here.

Other Hadrian’s Wall Accommodation Options

Hadrian’s Wall Hotels/B&Bs: Vallum Lodge
Hadrian’s Wall Hostels/Bunkhouses: YHA The Sill at Hadrian’s Wall
Hadrian’s Wall Campsites: Hadrian’s Wall Caravan and Campsite and Winshields Campsite

Day 4: Gisland/Bank/Walton

Accommodation: Hadrian’s Wall Country Yurts

Distance from the trail: 1.6miles/2.6km

Price per night: £109 (not including breakfast)

Finding the right place for accommodation at this stage of the walk is so difficult. If you stay somewhere in Gisland, you’ve barely walked 10 miles on day four so you’ll have an epic walk the next day. And if you walk to Walton, it will be a long day four and a super short day five. So when I found Hadrian’s Wall Country Yurts smack bang in the middle of those two villages in a tiny place called Bank, I felt pretty smug.

We stayed in a beautiful Mongolian-style yurt with a gas stove, coolbox, BBQ, wood-burning fire, shower, and toilet. It was a fantastic experience and has everything you might need! Well, except no actual food and it’s a 30-minute walk from the trail.

Read next: Robin Hood Prince of Thieves Filming Locations in England (including Sycamore Gap!)

I don’t really have any regrets about how I planned our Hadrian’s Wall trip but, if I did, this would be one. Our attentive host asked me if we wanted to add any food to her weekly Tesco delivery so we’d have all the food we needed at the yurt when we arrived. By this point in the planning process, I was getting decision fatigue and I didn’t really know my walking pal that well (at this point in time!) and didn’t want to ask him to make decisions, so I stupidly said no.

Instead of giving my friend the minor inconvenience of deciding what we wanted to eat a couple of weeks in advance, we had to walk the 3-mile round trip to Haltwhistle to pick up food. Not only that, but carry it too. I don’t think walking those extra 30 minutes walking to the yurt would’ve been nearly so tiring if we hadn’t walked extra miles earlier in the day. So, I fully recommend staying at the yurt as long as you don’t make the same mistakes I did!

Other Hadrian’s Wall Accommodation Options

Hadrian’s Wall Hotels/B&Bs: The Samson Inn, Brookside Villa B&B, Hill on the Wall B&B and Low Rigg Farm
Hadrian’s Wall Bunkhouses/Hostels: Florries on the Wall
Hadrian’s Wall Campsites: Sandysike (also a bunkhouse) and Camping at Banks

Day 5 & 6: Carlisle

Accommodation: Crown & Mitre Hotel

Distance from the trail: 0.5miles/0.8km

Price per night: £72 (£144 in total, not including breakfast)

Finally, back to civilisation and a city where you have lots of accommodation and food options! Well, you would if you book your accommodation months in advance and not 45 days, like us. We opted for the cheap and cheerful Crown & Mitre Hotel. It has very dated decor, but it’s near the trail, train station and bus station. I booked it through Booking.com for those sweet cancellation policies. Our booking didn’t include breakfast but as with Newcastle, it’s not a deal-breaker when you’re in a city with lots of options.

You will notice that we stopped for two nights in Carlisle and not just one. That’s because we hopped on a bus back to Carlisle after we completed Hadrian’s Wall Path at Bowness-on-Solway. I might have f*cked up the food situation at the yurt, but I redeemed myself on the last day.

Bowness-on-Solway is a tiny village with almost zero accommodation and definitely not as many affordable options as Carlisle. And if we had stayed over at Bowness-on-Solway, we’d have needed to take a taxi back to Carlisle the next day (with a £30 fare) because the buses don’t run on Sundays. Instead, I checked the bus timetables and we were able to catch the N.93 bus back to Carlisle at 17:14, about an hour after we finished the 84-mile trek on late Saturday afternoon. Just enough time for a swift pint at The Kings Arms Inn to celebrate our achievement.

Other Hadrian’s Wall Accommodation Options

Hadrian’s Wall Hotels/B&Bs: Cartref Guest House and Cornerways Guest House
Hadrian’s Wall Hostels/Bunkhouses: Carlisle City Hostel
Hadrian’s Wall Campsites: Bleatarn Farm Campsite

And those are all my top Hadrian’s Wall accommodation recommendations for those doing the Hadrian’s Wall Walk! Are you considering walking Hadrian’s Wall Path and need advice? Let me know in the comments below!

Read next: Hadrian’s Wall Path Packing List for Women